abducted June 6, 2021<\/a>, she went to celebrate a birthday with friends, Farnell said.<\/p>\n\u201cThey went to a number of restaurants just to hang out and have a good time with friends,\u201d Farnell said. \u201cShe had four or five drinks, but she was not drunk.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bacilio and Lopezevaristo worked at a Louis Burger restaurant in Long Beach and decided after work to also head to Huntington Beach to drink, Farnell said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey walked around, got drinks, had a few at bars and then went to buy some beer and got in their vehicle,\u201d Farnell said.<\/p>\n
As they were exiting the parking garage, they saw the victim having an argument with her boyfriend on a corner. The woman was on the phone with her ex-boyfriend when the two grabbed her, Farnell said.<\/p>\n
The prosecutor showed jurors surveillance video of the men dragging her into the Chevrolet Traverse as she screamed for help just before midnight, Farnell said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese were two strangers,\u201d he said. \u201cThey didn\u2019t know [the victim]. They saw her, wanted her and just took her.\u201d<\/p>\n
The victim continued to struggle with the men in the vehicle, \u201cfighting for her life,\u201dFarnell said.<\/p>\n
She was \u201crepeatedly punched in the face,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
She was \u201cfighting and screaming while she was being sexually assaulted,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, she was \u201cstrangled to the point she passed out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The next thing the woman remembered was waking up in the middle of Pacific Coast Highway, where she was dumped south of Warner Avenue, Farnell said.<\/p>\n
She frantically waved to passing motorists for help, the prosecutor said. One stopped and called for help, he said.<\/p>\n
The woman was unable to identify her attackers, so police turned to surveillance video to get a partial license plate of the vehicle used in her abduction, Farnell said.<\/p>\n
Bacilio\u2019s \u201cfirst interview (with police) was all lies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Bacilio eventually said he drove away with the woman because \u201che was scared\u201d and was \u201cvery angry\u201d at his friend for assaulting the victim, Farnell said.<\/p>\n
Bacilio\u2019s attorney, Annie Rodriguez of the Orange County public defender\u2019s office, told jurors that her client \u201cis before you a guilty man.\u201d<\/p>\n
The defense attorney said there was no doubt the woman was a victim of a \u201chorrific\u201d attack that \u201cis every woman\u2019s nightmare.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the defense attorney said Bacilio hardly knew Lopezevaristo. They worked together for a few months and occasionally \u201chung out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bacilio had previously worked in Huntington Beach, so he was familiar with the area, Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n
Her client downed 12 to 14 beers and was \u201cvaping marijuana\u201d that evening, she said.<\/p>\n
When they approached the victim, she was asked if she wanted a ride, she said. \u201cAnd, yes, they grabbed her, and yes, they pulled her into the car.\u201d But Bacilio drove away from the scene because \u201che was scared.\u201d<\/p>\n
They drove for about five minutes on Pacific Coast Highway before stopping, Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s doing everything they can to get away from these men,\u201d she said. \u201cBut (Bacilio) can\u2019t see what is happening. … All he knows is he can hear [the victim] fight for her life.\u201d<\/p>\n
As she screamed for help, it \u201cclicks\u201d for Bacilio what is happening, so he pulled over, Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was no plan to sexually assault\u201d the victim, Rodriguez said. Bacilio ensured the victim got out of the car. \u201cAt that point, either she is pushed out or she gets out on her own,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was only in the vehicle for about five minutes,\u201d Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n
The victim\u2019s \u201cmemory is not perfect\u201d about what happened, Rodriguez said. The victim said Bacilio punched her as he was driving, which, \u201cyou know that can\u2019t be true.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bacilio is a \u201csimple man with a third-grade education,\u201d Rodriguez said.
\u201cMr. Bacilio is guilty, but he\u2019s not guilty of kidnapping for a sexual assault,\u201d Rodriguez said. \u201cHe never put his hands on [the victim] in the car.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 52-year-old man was behind the wheel of his car, punching a woman he helped abduct off a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167529,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[80577,1052,80576,53437,1576,2631,588,25755,131,133,132,1555,7563,80578,80575,178,2601,1557],"class_list":["post-167528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-annie-rodriguez","tag-attorney","tag-bacilio","tag-foreign-object","tag-friend","tag-help","tag-huntington-beach","tag-kidnapping","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-man","tag-rape","tag-sex-offense","tag-thomas-farnell","tag-vehicle","tag-victim","tag-woman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}